


'til death do us apart

by orphan_account



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Angst and Tragedy, Bad Ending, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Character Study, Childhood Friends, F/M, Flashbacks, Future Fic, Graphic Description of Corpses, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Marriage Proposal, Mild Gore, Romance, Tragic Romance, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22227490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: " if we make out of this alive, i'm marrying you. " // 13.10.19
Relationships: Aomine Daiki & Momoi Satsuki, Aomine Daiki/Momoi Satsuki
Kudos: 22





	'til death do us apart

How did it turn out this way?  
  
Everything had gone wrong. Awfully, _awfully_ wrong, and there was not a single thing he could have done to prevent it.  
  
Somehow, he had always known deep down that there was no way both of them could’ve made it out alive. He was stupid, reckless, and too much of a stubborn moron indeed — but he was _hopeful_. He had believed in a thing called fate. No matter how slim it was, when given, a chance was a chance and he‘d be damned not to continue grasping at straws as long as the light at the end of the tunnel was still there, dimmed, but _there_ nonetheless. And that was all that had mattered.  
  
So what if the world was falling apart around them?! So what if the earth was crumbling with every step they took, the sky shattering into millions of pieces above their heads?!  
  
As long as she continued to hold his hand in her own and walked tall beside him, he was content. All the rapidly spreading epidemics in the world and _walking_ decaying corpses weren’t going to change the well-established fact that Momoi Satsuki had been, was, and always would be his only source of strength. It was one of the few things he could proudly admit to himself with a degree of certainty solid enough to rival even the hardest rocks: there wasn’t a single moment in his life that lacked the presence of his childhood friend, his soulmate, no matter how brief or insignificant it might’ve been. From start to finish, it was always her by his side, and he was hellbent on keeping it that way.  
  
Aomine Daiki was a selfish man. He did little to care about others and the size of his ego was so tremendous that had it possessed a physical form, it would’ve far surpassed his outstandingly intimidating frame itself and _that_ was speaking volumes. He was greedy, self-centered, high-maintenance and often compared to a wild panther: ferocious and dangerously territorial, especially when it came to her. Quite frankly, it was a mystery to everyone (including himself) how she continued to indulge his antics even if she tried desperately to mask it with _loud_ , vocal illustrations of her annoyance. It was a mystery how he stayed despite the constant nagging and screaming she threw his way on a daily basis as well; only to him — the answer was as clear as day. For all the harsh words directed towards her, for all the complaints regarding how she managed to get on his nerves most of the times, he always put up with them for her sake because she was _Satsuki_ and even _he_ knew without all their friends pointing it out that she deserved better than a hotheaded, good-for-nothing idiot of a best friend. He knew but he stuck to her regardless, and he blamed it entirely on Satsuki because it wasn’t like he asked for her unwavering trust: she just never gave up on him even when he had given up on himself, stayed with him through thick and thin, met his selfish demands one after another— it wasn’t _his_ fault that he started _needing_ her in his life, you know?!  
  
He hated her and her stupid, _stupid_ unconditional love for him.  
  
Because she had seen through all of the facades, the walls he’d built as a defensive mechanism against the world that had been so generous and yet cruel to him at the same time, and stayed, she brought herself to the devil’s lair. He didn’t know when exactly it became impossible to envision a life without Satsuki, but he wanted and needed her all to himself and he was _not_ ready to let go of her.  
  
_He was never ready to let go of her._  
  
He could barely recall the day all hell unleashed — _the Apocalypse_ , as people had dubbed it. Daiki had never been one for poetic phrases, but it happened less a month ago and yet he felt like eons had passed since then. It had been so long since the sky was last blue, the birds were chirping and the sun was shining brightly upon them. Nowadays, everything was gloomy and painted in shades of destruction and carnage: bodies scattered like garbage along the streets, people dropped like fallen leaves at the receiving ends of their weapons, air filled with the horrid stench of rotten corpses. The day it started, he had singlehandedly taken out his parents first and, after seeing the dreadful hesitation reflected in her violently shaking hands, hers as well. He had to hold her back from screaming and potentially hurting herself in the aftermath so hard that his strength left her bruises for days; when she cried and cried to the point of passing out into his chest, headless bodies laying a mere foot away from where they were hurdled up in a corner, there was not a single night passed by that he hadn’t felt the guilt eating at his guts from deep inside.  
  
They both grieved, but the circumstances they were put in had forced it to last no longer than a day. Satsuki had been the first to recover: _there's no time to sulk around_ , she had said while pulling herself up, him along with her, and together they plunged headfirst into a battle of survival as if it was merely the sandbox they loved playing in when they were ten. Her brilliant intelligence combined with his brute strength and their mutual understanding of each other made them the perfect match: she’d keep them from infecting or starving themselves to death, he’d keep them safe and sound from vicious attacks of mindless beasts.  
  
_"Just like old time,"_ she had told him as they were standing back to back, their movements syncing so flawlessly in a dance of violence and hostility that it sent chills down his spine. Despite not being able to see her face clearly in that position, he could hear the mirth dripping in her voice and envision the amusement sparkling in her lively eyes — the nostalgia hit strong when he reminisced their high school days, fighting side by side as the powerful duo of ace and manager.  
  
_Just like old time._  
  
Time waited for no one as it passed by them in a blur. Before they knew it, it had been well over a month. The situation didn’t seem to change for the better at all, and that was putting it lightly. All efforts of contacting other people, the government, anyone were fruitless and the constant fighting, moving, running were starting to take a toll on their bodies — he could barely remember the last time he had a decent sleep without the numbing soreness that burnt in his muscles. Hell, he could hardly remember the last time he even slept at all: they agreed on taking shifts to stay alert at night, but neither of them could fool each other with intensifying dark circles and bloodshot eyes in the morning. They were still hopeful and dreaming of a day where peace would be restored, but the growing tension was real and had them in a grip so heavy that it felt _suffocating_ to even look at each other.  
  
Still, at the end of the day, he’d hold her tight in his embrace while she cradled his head to her chest and everything would be alright.  
  
It took him one close encounter with death to realize just how fleeting life could seem.  
  
They’d been trapped on the rooftop of a building three-story high; and when one spent enough time surviving the apocalypse, one’d know that there was no situation more unpleasant to end up in than being cornered on a rooftop by a dozen hungry monsters or so. The fear reflecting in Satsuki’s eyes was not a look that suited her well, he thought bitterly, impressed by how she still managed to fence off the zombies one after another even amidst a panic attack of her own. In the spur of the moment when they inched dangerously close to the edge, he’d decided that _no, there was no way in hell they would go out this lamely_ ; so he grabbed her tight by the waist, stared her down with a gaze so serious that he felt out of character himself, and—  
  
_"If we make out of this alive, I'm marrying you."_  
  
The announcement widened her eyes so much that she was afraid they'd pop out, but before she could give him a piece of her mind, they were tumbling over the broken railings and plummeting down below.  
  
...Straight into a mountain of rotten garbage, decomposing bodies, bloody organs and crawling insects.  
  
He grunted and she gagged as the putrid smell invaded their nostrils.  
  
“That’s got to be one of the _least_ romantic proposals ever, Dai-chan,” her words screamed disappointment but the smile blooming fondly across her face told him otherwise, and he couldn’t help but crack a grin of his own, ever so charming even if the condition they were in couldn’t possibly get any more disgusting.  
  
“Aomine Satsuki does have a ring to it,” he told her as he flung them both over the garbage truck just in time for one zombie to come crashing at them from above.  
  
“I never said yes,” she replied curtly as her hand tangled around his, and they both started running away from the hellhole they had found themselves in.  
  
“I didn’t ask.”  
  
Their wedding could hardly be considered an actual one. There were no churches, no flowers, no wedding attires — they were both clad in dirtied tank tops and baggy pants, their bodies reeking of sweat and blood and instead of a priest there was no one to witness their matrimony coming to life, but neither of them really cared. Or, at the very least, he pretended not to care: Satsuki was all beaming and glowering as she tittered to herself, telling him how awful he was to keep her waiting this long just for him to realize that he needed her in his life. Little did she know, he was well aware of that for as long as he could remember. He’d had thoughts of them moving in together before and what a bliss it would have been to return home to her — troublesome, annoying, constantly nagging but _his_ Satsuki.  
  
Only that dream never came true.  
  
_"I, Aomine Daiki —"_

_"I, Momoi Satsuki —"_

_" —Take you, Momoi Satsuki, to be my wife,"_

_ "—Take you, Aomine Daiki, to be my husband,"  
_

_ "To have and to hold _

_ From this day forward _

_ For better, for worse _

_ For richer, for poorer _

_ In sickness and health _

_ To love and to cherish..." _

** _ "...Till death do us apart."  _ **

His heart felt as though there was an invisible fist clamped around it, violently squeezing the air out as it throbbed painfully with every taken pulse. Satsuki was carefree as ever, completely oblivious to the raging sentiment he was oh so desperately drowning in. Aomine Daiki had never been the type to fret over details: in his book, the less meant the better; yet when it came to Satsuki, he wanted to strangle himself for not being able to give her the dream wedding she had deserved because God knew she deserved so much, _so much_ better than whatever it was that they were having then. There were no rings, but she had insisted on making it special by sealing the deal with a drop of blood from their own fingertips. _Now we're finally one_ , she had told him, tears-stained and lips curving in a smile so achingly beautiful that he had to wipe it off with a bruising kiss. It was bitter and painful and tragic all at the same time, but when they melted into each other’s embrace underneath the hazy moon, suddenly the pain was a little less agonizing to bear.  
  
He had really believed that they would be alright. But in the end, God couldn’t stand by watching the seed of violence he had bestowed upon humanity bloom into something as intolerable as love.  
  


* * *

"Dai-chan, _please,_ " she begged but her pleas flew right over his head. He couldn't focus on anything but the way her right arm flopped limply by her side, pristine bone peeking out from where the elbow was nearly torn out of its socket. Even with a blazing fire of rage threatening to consume him raw, he couldn't shut out the haunted ringing of her agonizing scream when she had been bitten. 

_He could have protected her._

_He could have prevented this._

But all the _could haves_ in the world didn't happen and now he was stuck staring at an image of her — deadly pale, barely breathing and writhing in agony Satsuki. He dropped to his knees, heart shattering into a thousand pieces with every movement he made. Her face was painted in a ghostly white then, blue veins prominent as they surfaced on her forehead and along the cords of her slender neck; her eyes, bloodshot and widened, staring back at him with such a hollow look in them that didn't need to be voiced for him to understand. 

_After all, she had always been a realist._

"Dai-chan, it'll be alright," she soothed through gritting teeth in a poor attempt to calm his raging demon and he found it terribly ironic how _she_ was the one comforting him. He had half a mind to lash out at her because _fucking hell, Satsuki, you're on the verge of **dying** and you're still concerned with **me**?! _

But the words never came out and all he could utter was a pathetic choke on his own breath when her teeth started to tear her bloody lips open. Drenched in sweat, her body felt like fire under his touch, and never before had Aomine Daiki been so overwhelmed with devastation than that moment when he's left powerless, watching a part of his life being forcefully taken away from him. 

He didn't know how long he had wordlessly sat there through her suffering, until she suddenly broke the silence that had fallen over them and he could finally taste the bitter tears against his tongue. 

"Dai-chan, _time's up_ ," she reminded him, her words barely coherent amidst short, punctuated gasps. The light in her eyes had dimmed — they rolled back almost lifelessly so as breathy moans escaped her lips. The inhumane efforts she was putting not to pounce on him were painfully evident in the way her nails dug into the skin of her palms so hard they drew blood, fingers twitching to claw at something. Satsuki trembled and cried and begged him to end her life before she fully turned, but Daiki felt like a coward when facing her request. How could he possibly lift even a finger to hurt her?! Did she not know how _cruel_ she was to ask such a thing of him?!

"I don't care," he seethed angrily, heart dropping at the look on her face. "I'm tired of you telling me what to do, Satsuki. We're getting you fixed and then we're leaving this place for good, _alive and breathing,_ you hear me?!" 

With all the strength she could mutter, Satsuki cracked a timid smile at the familiarity of his antics she was so accustomed to, and took her time engraving the sight of his face, the sound of his voice into her memory. 

Her silence only seemed to piss him off more, however, as he pulled her into an embrace so tight he was afraid he'd almost shattered her bones there. He was like a child clinging at his favorite toy when threatened to have it taken away — only a child could live without his toy, but there was no way he would be able to go on without her. 

_"Don't go where I can't follow, Satsuki,"_ he pleaded, ego of a man abandoned at her feet and walls crumbling down with every crack of his voice, begging for her to stay. He burrowed his head in her neck and greedily inhaled in the scent he had become so familiar with, tainted by the metallic stench of blood. 

_"Don't follow me, idiot,"_ her whisper was akin to the softest of breezes against his ear. **_"Don't die."_ **

His eyes widened upon her request. 

_"Promise me you'll live,"_ she urged, voice coming out in ragged breaths. _"Promise me you'll try, no matter how difficult it gets. And then..."_

He swallowed dryly.

He could almost hear the smile in her tone as she continued. ** _"And then...When the time comes, I'll be waiting for you on the other side."_ **

"The hell are you talking about, stupid?!" He cut her off with a yell, hands clutching at the small of her back tighter, tighter that it made her wince out in pain, but he was already beyond the point of caring. He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry out at the cruel way fate had played them, the emotions built up threatening to overlap and explode into pieces. What a game. 

"I still owe you a proper wedding, so you better—" his voice broke abruptly as she started to shiver in his arms. _"You better live, Satsuki! You **have to** live, Satsuki..."_

He expected her to laugh out loud at how desperate he sounded, how uncharacteristic he looked with his eyebrows twisted and tears streaming down the sides of his face uncontrollably; but instead, he was met with a dreadful silence as she went still in his hold.

_ "Satsuki...?" _

_ "Oi, Satsuki..." _

** _"Satsuki, please."_ **

She replied with a guttural sound coming from the base of her throat, hot breath flaring against the bare skin of his neck. Before her sharp teeth could pinpoint their target, he gritted his own and squeezed his eyes shut as he met her halfway, slamming her head into the wall behind them. Her suffering was put to an end with one, swift movement that barely required any of his strength — and yet, Daiki felt terribly drained, as though it was the most difficult thing he had ever done.

When he opened his eyes again, the grey cement had turned into a grotesque painting, colored in splatters of dripping red and the remains of crushed skin and bones. Satsuki's body keeled backwards, going limp against his hold, dull magenta eyes glazed over lifelessly. 

And that was all it took to destroy a man. 

* * *

  
A week after, Aomine Daiki found himself returning to the exact place where he had left Satsuki in.  
  
“This is no good after all, Satsuki...”  
  
The distance between them seemed to drag out for ever as he closed it with heavy steps, legs threatening to give out under the weight of his looming figure. The dreadful smell of rotten meat stuffed the air as he sat down on the floor beside her corpse, a hand clad over his eyes tiredly. In the end, he still didn’t know how to move on without her — from start to finish, Satsuki had always been there to pick up the broken pieces with him even if they ended up hurting her so; she was his only anchor to sanity in this world of madness, and now that she’s gone, he suddenly felt like he was sixteen all over again: lost and stranded with no directions, no one to guide him home. 

In an agonizingly slow manner, he turned his head sideways to find her staring back at him.  
  
Aomine Daiki had been wrong about many things in his life, and once again, he was proven right of that fact because Satsuki was just as beautiful dead as she was alive. Instead of hollow sockets crawling with maggots, he saw the sparkles of life twinkling in her magenta eyes as she oh so sweetly called out his name, and for a brief moment, he was tricked by the illusion that they were whole again — side by side, her hand in his, the two of them against the world. But illusion stayed illusion and with an unanswered cry of her name, a blink of his eyes, he was once again greeted with the horrid sight of her decomposing body. Letting out a low chuckle at his own madness, he slumped against the wall and ran a cold hand over his face in exhaustion. Satsuki was dead and _gone._ She was _never_ coming back.  
  
“I never promised, y’know,” he told her, or rather, what was left of her — it didn’t gasp out in frustration at his revelation, nor did it snap back at his words.  
  
“...I don’t think I can do it.”  
  
The confession was then followed by a short, mirthful laugh.  
  
“Sorry, Satsuki. I always disappoint you.”  
  
His tone was not at all apologetic as his words suggested, and from the corner of his eyes, he could see the sliver of sharp metal gleaming in the palm of his hand.  
  
_"You better be waiting for me still, Satsuki..."_ his voice trailed off shakily with a tired exhale, the burning pain from the bite marks received earlier only now registering in his lower abdomen. In his palm, the blade of a dagger remained clean.  
  
_**"...I'm coming to join you."** _  



End file.
